South African inventor wages war on plastic waste!

Now this is something to get really excited about; imagine if this technology gets used on a large scale then we could really say 'bye-bye' to the majority of plastic pollution!

Article courtesy of Popular Mechanics:

Convert waste plastics and old tyres into a variety of fuels to power our modern lifestyles? You’d better believe it. This game-changing process – brainchild of Western Cape inventor William Graham – finally gives us the tools to wage war on non-degradable waste, and win.

When we think of home-grown tech heavyweights, names such as SpaceX’s Elon Musk and space tourist Mark Shuttleworth immediately spring to mind. For reasons that make perfect sense, these guys capture a fair slice of the limelight – but make no mistake, they’re not the only show in town. In reality, South Africa produces a good number of modest geniuses, some of them sharply focused on solving the burning issues of the day. Somerset West resident William Graham is definitely one of these.

Graham first appeared on PM’s radar back in mid-2005, when we heard about his reverse osmosis desalination system (our article describing his work was published in June that year). His revolutionary approach to the production of fresh drinking water dramatically reduced the costs, both financially and environmentally, to the point where it became a practical alternative for thirsty regions such as ours.

Needless to say, the Middle East welcomed him with open arms. Today, about 100 water plants worldwide use his technology, and the largest, in Singapore, produces a staggering 55 million litres of drinking water each day.

Amazingly, despite his international success and solid inventor credentials, Graham remains largely unknown in his own country – until now. The introduction of his modular, fully automated plastics-to-fuel processing plant is about to make some very influential people, and very large businesses, sit up and take notice.

The beauty of Graham’s patented system is that it can accommodate all types of plastics (except PVC, because of its chlorine content) as well as vehicle tyres. Even that environmental baddie, polystyrene foam – used in takeaway containers and gadget packaging – can be used as feedstock.
http://www.popularmechanics.co.za/te...plastic-waste/ 

Home recycling success!

After emailing Elkanah I received a quick response with all the info I needed about days, times and where to drop off your garbage. It was all so simple, and you can drop off all your items for recycling in one place! One thing to remember for the future is that they do prefer your recycled rubbish to be dropped off in clear plastic bags...

Drop off info as follows:

                                                         MONDAY             Blouberg campus from 7.30 til 8.30 am

                                                         TUESDAYS           Sunningdale campus from 7.00 til 8.30 am

                                                         WEDNESDAYS   High School from 7 – 8am

For the address of each campus please go to http://www.elkanah.co.za/

So far so good!

Home recycling - 1st hurdle

In our household we're starting to feel pretty proud of ourselves. Plastic, tins, paper and glass have all been duly sorted and washed where necessary. The glass always seems to accumulate much faster than anything else (I wonder why?) but this is not really a problem as there is a glass collection point behind our local Pick 'n' Pay supermarket. We've been many times.
But now our paper and plastic offal is mounting up and I can't seem to find the information for the appointed days where you can take your recyclables to Elkanah. I have checked their web-site and 'Googled' the relevant phrases but to no avail.
C'mon guys, if you want to make this easy, please make the days and times when you want people to drop stuff off widely available!
Anybody out there with this info, please let me know...

PETCO reports 18% increase in recycled plastic bottles

The good news is that for 2012, PETCO (PET Plastic Recycling Company (Pty) Ltd), has reported an 18% increase in the collection and recycling of PET plastic beverage bottles. This means that a total of 45% of SA's cool drink and water bottles were recycled in 2012, whilst the local market consumption of PET grew from 145 000 to 166 000 tonnes. It's still  drop in the ocean, but it's a step in the right direction.

Go to http://thegreentimes.co.za/stories/waste/item/1954-plastic-beverage-bottle-recycling-up-by-18?utm_source=Green+Times+Subscribers&utm_campaign=7f6f04ff9f-Issue+90&utm_medium=email to read the full article!

Recycling at home...

No more procrastination, it's official - our home re-cycling project is now in full swing! We already had a composter in the garden for our food/kitchen waste and we were re-cycling our glass (wine bottles mainly) but it is high time we put in a bit more effort and recycle as much as we can. Hopefully our new sorting bins (pictured) will help us do that. We will now separate our plastic, paper and tins to take to a local school. Elkanah House collects recylable waste and then sells it on to Wasteplan therefore generating funds for other projects - how cool is that! Look out for updates as to how our recycling works out...

Woman in Waste Shows Us How

Article courtesy of The Green Times (www.thegreentimes.co.za)
 
“I have a confession to make. I wasn't born a greenie, I didn't have a passion for it at high school or anything like that. I was actually in banking, believe it or not.”

So starts my interview with Anthea Hartzenberg. No, she doesn’t waste anything, not even words! Anthea is the owner of Recycle 1st – a waste recovery business collecting recyclables from 245 households and 110 businesses in the Western Cape. She currently serves the following areas: Wynberg to Town along the M3, Fresnaye along the coast to West Beach and the Northern suburbs up till Boston, Bellville.

How did this green entrepreneur progress in such a short time from donating her friends' recyclables to NGO's to running a successful and sustainable business? I went to visit Anthea at her factory in Epping to experience this story for myself.

The importance of accounting:

Anthea was working in the banking industry and was interested in starting a business. Yet coming from the banking sector she was very aware of the fact that 75% of SA businesses go down in the first 2 years. So, she went for a Business Administration Course to equip herself with skills she didn’t acquire at school, like accounting.

The TAKE 3 Initiative

ACTION: The Take 3 initiative encourages people to take three pieces of litter whenever they leave a beach or waterway.

There is a growing concern within the scientific community that our seafood could become contaminated with toxic chemicals as a result of plastic waste in the ocean.

Plastic pollution is entering the sea at an unknown rate. Ocean currents have gradually swept this global rubbish into five known gigantic "garbage patches" between the world's continents to date.

While garbage patches are popularly regarded as giant floating islands of trash, the reality is an abundance of confetti-sized plastic fragments that are suspended throughout the entire water column.

"The sun and interaction with the ocean breaks the plastics down into very small pellets that are almost invisible to the naked eye," said Dr Erik van Sebille, a research fellow at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science.

Scientists are concerned that toxic chemicals are leaching from the decomposing plastics into the seawater. The fragmented plastics also act as a "sponge" for other toxic chemicals, such as pesticides, already present in the marine environment. As the plastics are mistaken for fish eggs and other food by marine life, the toxins enter the food chain.

The pollutants become more concentrated as larger animals eat smaller contaminated animals, posing a risk for those at the top of the food chain - humans.